The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - The Pregnancy Whisperer, Dr. Elliot Berlin - Fertility, Labor, & Everything Else You Need To Know About Pregnancy

Episode Date: January 10, 2020

#240: On this episode we sit down with Dr. Elliot Berlin. Dr. Berlin is an award winning prenatal chiropractor, childbirth educator, doula, and labor support bodyworker. This was a well rounded conversation focused on pregnancy, fertility issues, the birthing process, and more.  To connect with Dr. Elliot Berlin click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by Joovv. Experience the benefits of red light therapy by one of the best in the business; JOOVV! To experience the Joovv and receive a free gift with purchase go to joovv.com/skinny This episode is brought to you by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning space offering more than 25,000 courses. Join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare today with a special offer just for our listeners: Get two months of Skillshare for free. That’s right, Skillshare is offering The Skinny Confidential listeners two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. To sign up, go to www.skillshare.com/TSC.  This episode is brought to you by BETABRAND and their Betabrand dress pant yoga pants. To try these pants go to betabrand.com/skinny and receive 20% off your order. Millions of women agree these are the most comfortable pants you’ll ever wear to work.  Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. TSC and get two free months of premium membership. That's two whole months of unlimited access to thousands of classes for free. Get started and join today by heading to Skillshare.com slash TSC. That's Skillshare.com slash TSC. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. So my area that I work on is this concept that the nervous system is either going to

try to help you with fertility, be neutral about it, or get in the way. So if you feel like your body's operating in emergency mode, like you're running from a tiger in danger, your body really doesn't want you to get pregnant at that point. So it can try to sabotage you. If you feel really good and you're just in a good physical place, an emotional place, and systems are all go, then the body generally tries to help you. Happy Friday. Michael has a huge announcement today that he needs to let everyone know. I'm 38 weeks pregnant, but what do you need to let everyone know, Michael?

I knew this was going to bite me in the ass. Well, first, we should introduce ourselves back and, you know, welcome back, everybody. It's going to be a half-assed intro because I'm already in the hot seat. My name is Michael Bostic. I'm in trouble. I'm also an entrepreneur. I'm also the CEO of the Dear Media Podcast Network. Wife across from me, Lauren. I'm Lauren Everett. It's the creator of The Skinny Confidential. And Michael's hair hurts.

Well, guys, okay, here's what happened. I woke up in the middle of the night the other day, and it was one of those things where for whatever reason, I didn't shower my head for three days. Listen, we've all been there. There's a lot going on. You kind of get lost in time between Christmas and New Year's. You don't really, you've kind of given up. You know, there's not a lot going on. Okay, get to the point. Okay, Lauren, here's what happened.

I didn't get my hair wet for three days and it hurt. Has anybody ever experienced that where like your hair hurts because, but it's actually your scalp that hurts. Michael, I just washed my hair after two weeks. Because your hair gets stuck in one position. I was wearing hats. Frankly, I don't give a fuck if your hair hurts. Do you know what's happening to my body right now? He woke me up to

tell me that his fucking hair hurts. I didn't wake you up to tell you that. You did. I just said it right when I woke up and I knew it was a mistake. And here's how crazy my wife is, everybody. I just want everyone to know the type of pain that I go through. She, in order to remember that it was something that she was mad about and irritated about, pulled out her notes app on her phone and wrote, Michael said his hair hurts. So that she would remember to yell at me for it later. And also remember to bring it up on this podcast. You better bite your ass that I'm going to write an Instagram caption about how you told me at 38 weeks pregnant that your hair hurt. I don't care about your hair. I don't know what happened to me as a child that I got so attracted

to crazy, but something happened is you're fucking nuts. Thank you. I love you. Thank you. But Jesus Christ, you are nuts. You belong in a tree. You would be bored if I wasn't nuts. No, I like them a little nutty, apparently. Hence the woman across from me. So yeah, I'm sorry I said that. I realized that you're going through a little bit more than me. My hair did kind of hurt. It feels better now if anyone's wondering. Your paper cuts, your hair hurting, your eyebrow hurting, your eye twitching, call a friend because it ain't me. I also stubbed my toe the other day real bad. Everyone can relate to that. That's painful. Let's talk about real things like my esophagus, my heartburn, my lower back pain, and talk about

how this episode relates to that. So I was recommended by so many amazing women on Instagram to go to Dr. Berlin. Supposedly he's the pregnancy whisperer. Okay. Now, before you're like, oh, this episode's about pregnancy, I'm going to tune out. You don't want to tune out because Taylor, our producer, told me on the elevator that this was one of his favorite episodes. He said it was so informative and he learned so much. And think about that. He's heard close to like 250 of these things. And Taylor's like, you know, stripping at my wedding with piss hanging down his leg, like dancing with every girl in the world. So you know that this is like actually a very informative, valuable episode of Taylor saying it. We talk about all different kinds of things.

And Dr. Berlin is super, super smart when it comes to pregnancy in general and chiropractic care. I knew I had to invite him on. I recently just finished his podcast. And hopefully that's up at the same time. And you guys can go check it out. He also did a podcast with Hilary Duff before and after birth that I just listened to that was super informative for me as an expectant mother. So Dr. Berlin's the shit. We go all over the place in this interview. He's fucking hysterical. He's a doula and you just wouldn't picture, if you go see his Instagram, it's at Dr. Berlin, you wouldn't picture him being a doula. But once you kind of wrap your head around it, he's like amazing. Whenever I go to see him, he does some deep tissue massage on my feet, which I'm very much about. Michael knows that. And then he adjusts my esophagus. So he actually

opens up space and creates space in between my esophagus and my lower ribs. So I experience less heartburn, which has been amazing. And then he does my neck and the whole thing. And I just walk out like I'm floating. You could really learn a tip or two from Dr. Berlin. Listen, you need that esophagus adjusted. I got some other ways to do that. Maybe that's not so appropriate. But anyways, guys, we're going to get into this one before we get myself into any more trouble. With that, Dr. Berlin, welcome to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show. This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her. Okay, just to hop right into this, can you please tell my husband why it is so bad to have his wallet in his back pocket?

Oh, I think it's great for you to have your wallet in your back pocket. It's one of the greatest things for chiropractors that ever happened. I also recommend sleeping on a futon working on a laptop. Because then I have to come back and see you over and over and over. Yes. I actually give out back pocket wallets to all of our new clients. I actually like his wallet in his pocket. So it's like handy for me to grab. But other than that, when he sits on it and then complains about his ass and his lower back, I'm not too into that. Well, you know, I got to find a better solution because this thing, listen, I got like that George Costanzaanza wallet remember the thing that's there the

sign called wallet exploded on him and um i i got all this junk in here i gotta figure it out but i don't know where to put it i don't like the front pocket like you know i don't always have a shirt pocket but i have a jacket or a vest i'll put it in there but i don't even understand like you have a phone yeah doesn't your phone replace 90 of what's in your wallet it does i don't even i have to kind of i have to do a wallet a wallet audit yeah yeah you need an audit there should be a guitar lessons in here those 800 naked pictures of me have got to go well it's not just you there's a lot in here no your blockbuster card like it's over you know what people hand me all these things and then i got this stupid key yeah what is that fax machine doing kinkos like what the fuck is in there i think i got my old high school id starbucks card you can

get that all on your phone no but in all seriousness you know what i actually i i know you're telling the truth on this i have issues on this side of my back like my hips yeah and i'm trying to solve it now so i've been wearing i've been putting it in the front pockets lauren told me you're beating me up a little bit about it and then i got i put in the vest i put in the jacket but i gotta find it you haven't found the spot yet yeah i'm working on it yeah and i go to a panic now because i'm so conditioned to have it there for so long that the other day i was going through the airport i had in my bag and then i was like shit did i leave it in the does everyone do this to you at dinner parties they start telling you their whole life

story about their back and their neck i do get a lot and sometimes it goes beyond that things that are way outside the scope of chiropractor what's this green thing on my toe people will say i'm like i don't know i did have some freckles in my mouth yesterday i'm not sure and lauren was giving me shit about it but today i went to look for them and they were gone and she said they might have been a black pepper from this pasta that she made but it wasn't i know self-awareness is not happening with you today well listen you get an expert in an expert in the room and you want to know what's going on. And I got you in the hot seat for like an hour or so. Okay. So Dr. Berlin, give us a little backstory, how you got into what you do. Cause you're very, it's very niche what you do.

I like how you said backstory. You're loaded with the puns. That is a pun. Don't mind if I do. Okay. I always thought I'd be a surgeon actually. And from the time I was seven, that's why I really fell in love with healthcare. I saw CPR happening in a class and I was like, what are they doing to that woman with no arms and no legs? And they said, you know, this teaches you if somebody, if their heart stops and they don't breathe, that you can use your body to be their heart and their lungs for a little while and keep them alive. And that blew my mind that I could use my body to help somebody else like that. So a couple of years

later, I did my own CPR class for the first time. And then I just snowballed from there. First aid, responding to emergencies, lifeguarding kind of stuff. By the time I was a teenager, 16, 15, I was teaching for the American Red Cross. And then when I was 17, I took the EMT training. And then as soon as I was 18, started working in ambulances and emergency rooms. And I was going to go all the way up the medical chain. And then when I was 19, my father suddenly died from a medical mix-up. I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you.

Partially from a medical mix-up. So I just took a big step back. I still love medicine. I really appreciate medicine and all the innovations that we have today. I just sort of wanted to be on the other side where we kind of use natural things to help the body heal itself when possible, and then go up the chain to, let's say, drugs and surgery when we need to. And so I took a year. We got engaged, and everybody thought, oh, he's going to medical school. It'll be great. And then I was like making pizza for a year, trying to explore the options, the holistic

modalities. And I fell in love with chiropractic and massage together. They make so much sense to me together, like the peanut butter and chocolate of holistic health care. So I went to school for both separately, two different schools for both. And my wife is a psychologist and we were in grad school in the same town. And when we finished, we thought, let's have a baby, you know, it's time. And we followed the instructions and no baby came out. And it led us to a three-year kind of

intense battle with fertility that ended with us being like 29 and 27 years old and doctors saying, there's no way you're ever going to have a baby between the two of you. So look into other forms of parenthood like adoption or egg donation. And at the end of that, we were pretty broke. We had no money. We had no relationship. We had nothing. We were just like exhausted physically and emotionally.

And we couldn't even begin to think about next steps. So we just took some time to take care of ourselves, to go on dates and really long bike rides and start doing a little meditation and Chinese medicine and eating better. And lo and behold, 10 months later, we felt a lot better, healed stronger. And we actually started to have the conversation, like what kind of path do we want to take to parenthood since we can never have kids? And lo and behold, we found out we were pregnant. Wow. So, and then every two years, another kid popped out. We couldn't shut it off.

It was like. So what. How many kids? Four. Four now. Jesus Christ. Okay. This freaks me out a little bit because doctors were literally telling you it was impossible.

Yeah. They said they didn't know why, but they didn't think we would ever be able to have babies. So we exhausted all the medical options. I don't love when someone tells me they don't know why. I need substantial things. Right. You either want to know exactly what's going on and how to fix it or why it's not going to work or this big amorphous question mark. But that's what happens to, I think, the majority of people who are stuck in a fertility journey.

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So how did you get into being a doula? Because I want to know how these two intertwine because you work on a lot of pregnant women. I mean, you're known. When I went on my Instagram story and I said, my back fucking hurts. What do I do? 90% of them were saying, go to Dr. Brula. There's a lot of women in this office. You actually, some of them may be your patients.

Yeah, I've seen a bunch. Now that we're here and I see all the brands. Raina and Paige recommended him. Oh, well, yes. I mean, there's a bunch of people. You're famous in here. Yeah. Well, thanks. I tend to be's a bunch of people. You're famous in here. Yeah. Well, thanks.

I tend to be famous among achy pregnant women in Los Angeles. Those are my people. How did I become a doula? Because when we came to Los Angeles, we opened a mind-body wellness center focused on general health, but also keeping an eye on how to boost your natural fertility, whatever you got. How do we make the most out of it? And in the first year, we had a few pregnancies and every year from there,

just snowballed more and more pregnancies. And then we were surrounded by pregnant people who said, we want to keep seeing you during our pregnancy. But I didn't really know anything about pregnancy. Very little is taught in both chiropractic and massage school on the base level. And so I thought there would be a place to send them that just kind of did pregnancy as a specialty, but I couldn't find that either. So I was like, Hey, look, I'll work with you, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I know what I'm doing. I could not hurt you, but I don't know if I can really help you that well. And over the years, I did a lot of study on people in other States that were doing prenatal care and people that had come before me to do prenatal care. And I learned come before me to do prenatal care.

And I learned a lot in working hands-on with people. I learned a lot. Then the journey kind of took this turn to where it became painfully obvious that people don't have enough information as a general rule going into pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and parenting and all the choices that you have to make. And they would just kind of be swept down different avenues of choice without really knowing what the options were and then regretting them later. So I would get asked questions all the time, and I would start to do research, compile the information in the most non-biased way I could, and just find ways to deliver it.

We had a magazine for a while, then we had a blog, then we had a podcast and some documentaries, and now a stand-up comedy show. Let me ask you this. And I might stumble here a little bit because it's not my field of expertise, but for people that are looking for natural remedies to increase their chances of fertility, what are some things that they can do? What are some practical steps they can take to kind of up their chances for fertility? So my area that I work on is this concept that the nervous system is either going to try to help you with fertility, be neutral about it, or get in the way.

So if you feel like your body's operating in emergency mode, like you're running from a tiger in danger, your body really doesn't want you to get pregnant at that point. So it can try to sabotage you. If you feel really good and you're just in a good physical place, an emotional place, and systems are all go, then the body generally tries to help you. There are certain things that you can't overcome. If you're born without a uterus or the ovaries aren't working or something like that, that's not going to, you know, you can eat all the, drink all the green juice you want to. That's not going to change. Within the structure, if you have all the parts and they're just for some reason not adding up the way they should, then you can boost your body by using nutrition and acupuncture and meditation, getting your mind into a much better place where your body's in a more fertile space. The part of it that's automatic, the part of it that works for you without you thinking about it, the autonomic nervous system has two kind of equal but opposite modes of operation.

There's the fight or flight emergency and there's the feed and breed relaxation. And whatever you do, if you're being chased by a tiger, your blood flow changes, where it goes to and come from, how much sugar you're breaking down and putting into the bloodstream changes, your pupil dilation changes, your breathing rate changes, your blood pressure changes. Everything changes without you thinking about it. So if you can picture as like an extreme that you're just sitting relaxed by the pool, reading a book, drinking a drink, and all of a sudden you hear rustling in the bushes and you look and there's a mountain lion chasing you, you don't have to think about it. Those changes all take place in a very big dramatic way.

And if that's happening to you, even on a smaller scale on a regular basis, then your body's kind of like, no, not a good time, not a good time, not a good time. If you can shift that thermostat to that more relaxed place, then your body says this is a good time. Talk to us about how you adjust babies out of the womb, because when you were working on me, you told me about it and I found it so interesting. Babies, you know, sometimes they don't need adjustments at all, same with adults, but babies in particular, they're really soft and there's nothing,

no built-up stress and tension for them. And so you can very easily feel the little vertebra and see if they're moving or not. And when they're not moving, it's such a, just a gentle adjustment, sustained contact where you just literally hold that vertebra where it's a little stuck and shouldn't be. And over time, over 30, 60, 90, sometimes two minutes, 60 or 90 seconds or two minutes, it just slides right back into place. And you said the reason that they have

to be adjusted is because when they get pulled out. Sometimes. I mean, if you look at birth videos, if you're, if you have a baby and you would have a birth video and you look at it and see when the baby's head came out oftentimes anxious uh providers will just take that head and work hard to pull the body out really quick and um i know this because we we looked when we had babies coming into the office with certain things at a very young age just sometimes days or weeks old like where is this trauma from they're just yanking them out oh they sometimes just yank them out you know meaning well just wanting to move things along but uh you when you look at the videos sometimes they're they're pretty looking yeah what is your opinion c-section versus vaginal birth because you we were talking about this

too i picked your brain before you came in here while you were adjusting me. Yeah. So I think that they're both great modes of delivery. Some people will want one. Some people want the other. I think that both options should be made available to everyone. Sometimes there are conditions that come up that make one or the other a more favorable medical choice. But outside of that, and even within that, the way you deliver risk somebody, if you just made a little chiropractic sound effect.

Yeah, I can crack myself. I love that. I'm hyper mobile. I'm going to give myself my own beauty and wellness advice. Thank you. You're welcome. I interrupted you. It's not going to get me very far.

Yeah. So, so sometimes things come up and, and the way, you know, if there's a risk involved, everything, there's no 100% safe way to do anything, especially have a baby. But each option has different pros and cons, different risks and benefits. And I think it's our job to talk to a person who's going to have a baby and their partner and say, hey, these are the options, these are the pros and cons of each option, which one would you like to do? Unless something's insanely risky, right? Then it should be like a co-decision between the person who's having the baby and the person who are supporting the person that's having the baby. So we just found out today. So our baby was on its head. Head down. Head down. Yeah. I'm not going to use the right verbiage, Dr. Brule. No worries. I'm just making sure I get you right. I'm a little rusty on the pregnancy verbiage. You got to help me out. So walk me through this. I'm with you.

Okay. So the baby's, what did you say? Head down? Was head down. Oh, I thought it was break dancing. Oh yeah. That's fine. I did not see that Truman Williams obstetrics textbook, but it works. Okay. It was on its head. And then the other night I woke up in the middle of the night and I looked at Michael and I said the baby flipped. And I didn't feel it flip, I just like could feel its energy that it flipped. I know that sounds crazy. Not to me. Okay, and so Michael's like, you're psychic.

I think you're crazy in a lot of other ways. No, no, no, let me tell you, she's definitely crazy. Yeah, I'm fucking batshit. Don't fuck with me. I'm the wrong person to fuck with, especially pregnant. Yeah, let's not. We don't need. That's been established a long time ago. So we went to the doctor today and they said everything looks good, that my placenta's moved out of the way so I can have a vaginal birth as of now.

Okay. If I want. And they said that the baby is now upright. Is that right? The thing's in there flipping and flopping. It flipped. Bridge, how many weeks are you now? I'm at 32 weeks. Okay okay so here's my question if the baby does not flip back down okay

they said the chances are pretty strong that it will i heard it hurts really bad from kim kardashian what hurts oh the maneuver to try to turn the baby okay well let's talk about breach for a minute normally between up until 28 weeks, babies are all over the place. They're head up, head down, sideways. There's a lot of room in the womb and they take advantage of it. And it doesn't matter. At around 28 weeks, there's roughly 50% of babies that are still not head down yet, okay, going into the third trimester. But somewhere around now, 32, 33, there's a big migration downward, presumably because they run out of space and they can't keep moving everywhere. They have to pick a position and a typical shape baby

and a typical shape uterus will end up head down. Sometimes they don't go head down and we'll get to some of the reasons why that in just a second. But at 32 weeks, even if there's about 90% of babies head down, so 10% breach or other positions that are not head down. At birth, it's only 3% to 4% that are not head down. So you go from 10% to about 3%. So the odds are still very much in your favor, especially since your baby was head down recently. So we know your baby can get head down. It's a little different if the baby's breech, breech, breech the entire time and is still breech at the end. There are some factors. So let's say the placenta is in the baby's face. That sometimes could be an issue for them not being able to get into head down.

If that's the ideal position, then we'll call it that. They could be the cord is short or wrapped around the baby. Funny. It could be your fluid levels are on either the higher side or the lower side. Both of them can cause breach. You got a lot of fluids in there. A lot of fluid. Yeah.

Just went through that. I'm learning a lot. Did they tell you how much fluid? They said that it's like a perfect amount. A lot of fluid. Yeah. Just, just went through that. I'm learning a lot. Did they tell you how much fluid? They said that it's like a good, like a perfect amount. Like a good pool. Yeah. Nice. The normal range is a big range.

I never knew I would want so much fluid in me. I know. Look at that. I'm getting fluid from all ends, Michael. If that baby thinks anything like its mom, it's just in there playing games. They'll figure it out. You know what I mean? Like it's going to hold out to the last minute and you're not going to know what's going

to be on time or not on time. You're going to think you're going to make it easy, not easy. I made him wait 10 years to date me. So the baby is probably like, maybe like his mom. She's just in there messing around. This makes a lot of sense to me. Just looking across. Actually, both parents.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I would be surprised if it was just a straight shooter. Yeah, me too. So if the baby doesn't flip and they have to manually. So if the baby doesn't flip and they have to manually there's some natural things that you can do to try to encourage the environment to be more conducive for head down like if your low back hips and pelvis are stiff and tight and rigid then there may be more room underneath your rib cage and that's where they'll want to go so we can try to

loosen that up with things like massage and adjustments and body work chinese medicine has a remedy acupuncture and something called moxibustion that is thought to naturally stimulate more movement in the womb. So those two combined, if you can make more space at the bottom where you want the head to go and naturally stimulate more movement with Chinese medicine, those are helpful. There's a website called spinningbabies.com that has all these exercises, positional exercises that you can get into. They're a whole lot of fun to try to, you know, move gravity in your favor. Again, at 32 weeks, you don't really have an alarming problem, but it's just sort of like a finger on the pulse, like, will this baby move in the next couple weeks or not? And if not, then you kind of have to do things. Medically, what they do is called

the external cephalic version. It's done at typically 37 weeks, and you go into the hospital for it, generally speaking, and they give you usually a drug to relax your uterus. And then they physically try to, through your belly, move the baby around. Little pause for a little hot tip. Do you want your ass to feel lifted and your legs to feel long in your pair of dress pants? I know I do. I know Michael does. Who doesn't?

Yes, especially right now. Like, I could use a pants. I know I do. I know Michael does. Who doesn't? Yes, especially right now. I could use a lift. You know what I mean? I have talked about these dress pant yoga pants by Beta Brand, and I have had so many DMs from people saying that they fit like a glove and they hold everything in while flattering you, which we love. They're perfect for the busy woman who wants to look fab but doesn't have time to be distracted by uncomfortable clothing. Sounds like my life right now. So I like the black ones, but there's tons of different colors. They have different patterns, cuts, and styles. I've talked about the ones that I like specifically. They're the skinny ones, but I've heard really good things about the boot cut and the straight leg. So definitely check out all their different cuts. If you're wanting to know

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If I have to do this, I am going to stick my fist up your penis hole or something crazy. I need something that's like really dramatic if I have to do this. Please tell me you're talking to Michael. Michael and Taylor. Listen, she's great. None of us are saving here. You know, if that happens, we all need to clear the area. Yeah, I'm self-defense. So, you know,

you don't ever have to do it. You always have the option to just stay breech. And if you do, in this town in Los Angeles, you still have some options. The typical is to schedule a cesarean at 39 weeks.

That's what they like to do. They don't want you to go into labor. Who's they? Celebrities? What does that mean? No, medical, the medical establishment.

Is that called the princess package? That is not called the princess package. You know what I'm talking about? I think I know what you're talking about.

Our friend got a princess package where you just show up and get everything done. So you get like your cesarean birth and also nip and tuck at the same time?

I think so. She didn't get a nip and tuck, but I mean. You know what? Maybe I'm not using the right term, but I thought that's what it was called. Again, not a Williams

obstetric term, but I can certainly look it up. I mean, I heard a lot of people in this town, they like to get stitched up by a plastic surgeon. And I'm not going to lie, I'm like very intrigued by that. I will tell you that OBs that do this every single day, every week, they do so many of them. Some of these guys, I see sometimes the scar after a cesarean around here and you don't even, unless you know what you're looking for, you don't even can't tell it's there. Okay. So I want to talk about infertility for a second, because this is a subject that we haven't

talked a lot about on this platform. And I know that there's a lot of people that are struggling with it. Is there anything that you can recommend that women can do to boost fertility? Sure. Just to finish that last conversation, there are doctors here who deliver breech babies vaginally in this town. Oh. But most doctors don't. If you go that route, you have to kind of meet certain criteria. They don't do it for all babies.

They do it for babies that they deem in a safe position. And otherwise, there's like nine criteria for safety. But rounding this out, I mean, in this breech conversation, there's like nine criteria for safety but but rounding this out you're i mean in this breach conversation there's still like with where she's at now you're saying two to three percent here that's not correct three to four three to four that end up in breach you love percentages well because no i think of everything in it as a you know one out of ten scale right well there's about four four million babies births in the united states every year so four percent would be 160 000 you know that's one every few minutes if you think about it in the united states every year so four percent would be 160 000 you know that's one every few minutes if you think about it in the u.s sure but if you look at

but four percent's low four percent's low but high enough to be a variation not like a weird complication if she's like me she'll flip the second before she comes right when they go do the c-section yeah yeah she'll just suck her yeah so talk to me about infertility um fertility infertility whatever yeah you're saying it sounds like you were saying before that you know the state of mind you're in can obviously alter can alter your fertility state so you believe right so the mind body work that we do in our clinic has to do with shifting the autonomic nervous system to a more fertile space we also do manual body work to try to increase blood flow to the womb and to try to remove restriction around the fallopian tubes

so there's less of a blockage between the egg and the sperm. There's also what I think often gets underlooked until the last minute is male fertility. So it's very easy to do a semen analysis and to kind of see the quantity and the quality of the sperm. Taylor, give us your semen right now. Right now. Here's a cup. Taylor, here.

That's why I put that wall back there. He can get that sample. Go ahead. I just want to make sure Taylor gives his semen before he goes. Well done. Yeah, so male fertility also needs to be looked at, in my mind, sooner than later. Like the things that we do to female fertility testing and treatment are much more invasive and difficult than what's required to test male semen.

And then in general, it depends on so many things, how long someone's been trying. I think people sometimes freak out early. They only try for two or three months, and then if it doesn't happen, they start to get really anxious about it, which again makes your nervous system kind of more like you're being chased by a tiger, then relaxed, uncomfortable. And then it interferes with the relationship. All of a sudden you're like testing everything. And, and the second you see that peak on that stick, it's like, come home now. It's, this is our window. And then it takes away, you know, intimacy from the relationship. It can really spiral downhill very quickly.

And sometimes it doesn't need to, but on the flip side, age is a factor. So the older, especially the female partner is then the window is more intense. It closes faster. And sometimes you don't want to mess around with base level things. You kind of want to jump in faster. So there's a lot of factors, but I think medically there are definitely things we can do. And, and holistically just improving nutrition and meditation to drain out built-up tension that's inside you, working on the relationship so that you're in a really good place. I think there's truth to, you know, a couple loves each other so much that they make a baby, that love spills over into a baby. I think when couples feel really closely bonded to each other, then it's more

likely to happen. Those are just some of the factors. You work with a lot of big celebrities, like some big ones. What's a common trend that you're seeing among celebrities, if any? In terms of pregnancy and birth? Yeah. My common trend that I see is the opposite of the stereotype. I see celebrity moms who are working really hard to be present in their birth and in a sense where they feel everything. And I think the stereotype is like too posh to push, but I'm,

I think they're like anybody else. They're all over the map, but just an interesting number of notable moms who've come through the office lately. And they're either doing like childbirth education classes that are hypnosis based or meditation based and they they really are looking at birth intentions or birth plans where they want to go as long as possible without medicating or numbing themselves um and if possible all the way and uh even home birth a bunch of them are doing home birth not because it's cool they just want to that's the environment that feels right to them who's someone you've had on your podcast that's a celebrity or an influencer that you think has just done a really good job of the whole process? I was really impressed with Hilary Duff. I knew you were going to say that. So you told me the

other day. Can you speak on that? Well, we have a two-part episode with her. In the first one, she was 21, very young. None of her friends were having babies. She was terrified. I think what she said to me, either on or off air, was that she was terrified of the thought of a baby crawling through her vagina and coming out the other side. And when she put it that way, I was terrified too. And so with her first baby, she didn't have any friends to talk to about it. And she just decided to schedule a cesan birth, which again, I think is fine. As long as you know the pros and cons and you're given all the options, you pick which

one's best for you and we support your choice. But she went to see her psychic, which she sees a couple of times a year. And her psychic was like, Hey, how's your birth planning going? And she said, Oh, I'm just going to have a cesarean birth. And her psychic said, why don't you let the baby choose how they want to come out and how he wants to come out. And so she kind of really took it to heart, thought about it, changed her plan and went for what I think is most typical in the US, which is a hospital birth with epidural sort of early on and, you know, waiting until you're ready to push and being coached and to how to push the baby out. And she had a really good experience with that. It was the five years between there and having her second baby where she realized that the moments

in life that she loved most about being alive and being a mother are where she's most present with her son. And she just had this thought, like, what if the most incredible, big, present thing I can do with my baby is birth? And I'm terrified of the intensity, so I'm going to run away from it. And so in her mind, she sort of got this idea that I want to try it this time without medication. And then she watched the Business of Being Born documentary, and she realized that if she's in the hospital, she'll probably fold and get the drugs. So she sought out to kind of toy with the idea of home birth, like meet some midwives and see what it would be like if she would feel comfortable with them.

And it was sort of like Goldilocks. There was one set of midwives that were much too medical for her, another set that was much too crunchy granola. And then she found midwives she really liked. And so I interviewed her 10 days before and 10 days after she had the baby, the home birth. And beforehand, she was quite nervous about the intensity, mostly. She medically felt safe with the people who were going to be around her, the home birth, and beforehand she was quite nervous about the intensity mostly. She medically felt safe with the people who were going to be around her, but she said, I'm not good with pain. I'm really, you know, I don't think I, I'm nervous about how I'm going to do it when things

get really intense. But she really prepared her mind, her body, and her home with things that she thought would help her. And afterwards she comes back and she did it. And she talks about all the things that she thought would help her that didn't and things that she didn't realize would be helpful. But I think it's a powerful podcast. And I just see a lot of people kind of along that path. Skillshare, Skillshare, guys, I get so fired up when I see people DMing me that they're using Skillshare and upping their game, adding new skills, learning new things. It really is the cornerstone of building a successful life as you're constantly learning, constantly adding new skills to your repertoire.

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That's two whole months of unlimited access to thousands of classes for free. Get started and join today by heading to Skillshare.com slash TSC. That's Skillshare.com slash TSC. What are some pros and cons of C-section and pros and cons of vaginal? Well, so I think that a vaginal birth that goes well uncomplicated and a cesarean birth that goes well uncomplicated, you could predictably say birth that goes well uncomplicated, you could predictably say the vaginal birth is going to be a better recovery. In terms of if you're planning

to have more than one kid, once you cut into the uterus, then you're raising the risk by some amount for subsequent pregnancies and birth that something's going to go wrong there with the uterus. And maybe the way the baby implants will be more challenging or that scar sometimes when the uterus expands again, and especially if you try to go into labor, there's a chance that that scar will separate. So some of the risks go up there. The recovery generally from a vaginal birth that goes well is night and day. People just get up, walk to the bathroom go pee you know i was talking to a friend of mine the other day she said she was back up and running in

like a week she had a natural birth yeah i don't know how accurate that is but yeah well i mean with cesarean you're typically in the hospital for about uh four days afterwards still and you have to recover from surgery but also like if you're you want to if you're going to breastfeed for example anyway you take care of your child but if you're going to breastfeed, for example, any way you take care of your child, but if you're going to breastfeed and you're recovering from abdominal surgery, you can't even really lift very much, and you're just more dependent. So now imagine you have a toddler and you're about to have a baby, and then you have abdominal surgery. It's sort of like if you have to or if you really want to, fine. But the recovery from that versus a vaginal birth that goes well is going to be more intense. Now, if I could predict, then I would say that seems like a better way to go.

But you don't always know. A vaginal birth that gets complicated or doesn't go well can really be harder to recover from. So if it's a long 40-hour labor with sometimes a lot of pushing, two or three hours of pushing, for some reason that kid doesn't come down, then you go have a cesarean birth that's a much more intense recovery than it would have been if you just set a dinner date and went for your scheduled c i could be wrong but i'm predicting that it'll be that you'll be able to push and that she'll want to shoot out of there pretty quick because if it's anything like me like i want to get moving quick you know or she could just sit and wait and fuck with me like me. Yeah. But yeah, so.

Oh, send in your predictions, guys. But I would say this. Send in your predictions. My prediction is on the first baby, especially you're strong. You have strong musculature, Lauren, and you're also a little tight. So the combination of strong and tight creates kind of a rigid environment. And your womb has to like work. It has to contract and push this baby down through your pelvis. On a first birth, that predictably takes a long time. And when, from my experience,

when you have all that strength together with tightness, hopefully we're going to get rid of a lot of that tightness before you get there. But that combination of strong and tight just creates a lot of rigidity. So a little extra work. It could be, Michael's right, your baby just shoots out very quickly. Now you got me questioning me because you're the expert here and i'm just you know shooting from the hip but you you're actually basing this on fact and tight yeah well strong and i was also trying to like basically i was thinking if i put it out there and said there's gonna be like a quick and easy birth that you would you know but first one i mean it would be a little i wouldn't bet that way on a first birth and especially on a first birth on

someone strong and tight as you've got onto. I see you writing a bumper sticker now. I'm strong and tight. I should get that on a bumper sticker. Why'd you get yourself so strong and tight? What about epidurals? A walking epidurals versus an epidural. So most places don't have the option for walking epidural.

Um, the epidural could be amazing. I think a lot of people that get one would say they are amazing. I just had somebody on the podcast who talked about sort of making out with her female little Indian doctor because she was so happy that she came and gave her the epidural. there are some pros and cons. Some people want them for sure. Some people want to avoid them for sure. And there's everything in between. And from some people who want to avoid them, they end up getting it. And from some people who want to have it, they end up not getting it. And some of the pros and cons are like this. If the intensity is more than you're wanting or able to handle, then it's a great way to make it go away. The downside is, I think, if you look at other animals in nature, they're usually not, you know, sitting on their back watching, keeping up with the Kardashians while they're in labor. They're up moving around and doing this like little dance that helps wiggle the baby down. Ambulation, a combination of movement and gravity tends to be really helpful for that.

And sometimes when you're stuck on your back or not really able to be very mobile, A, your brain doesn't like it, like active people sometimes really don't like it, just not feeling their bodies. But B, you don't have that benefit of being able to move around the same way to bring the baby down. So it sometimes seems to lead to the need for other interventions, maybe a drug. Also, before they give you the epidural, one of the possible downsides is that it makes your blood pressure crash really low. So they have to give you a bag of fluid first, an IV fluid first. So not great for, you know, swelling.

But also, it kind of seems to dilute the hormones. So somebody, we see this all the time, someone has a great productive labor pattern. It's going great. It's going great. And then all of a sudden they get that bag of fluid and their contractions that were every like three or four minutes and lasting a minute a piece and really helping to dilate the cervix. All of a sudden they peter out and they're four or five, six minutes apart and they're only 30 to 40 seconds and they're not

making any progress. Normally what you would do is get up and walk around to make that better, but you can't. So sometimes they end up having to give you drugs that will make your uterus contract kind of artificially. I am such an asshole. I went into your office when I first got pregnant and I was like, I'm doing a C-section. And you looked at me and you're like, we got to unpack this. Because there is so much information. Like that makes total sense. Your endorphins and your serotonin that you get from giving birth naturally that are helping you get through the labor go away when you can't walk.

And when you get a bag of fluid, that makes total sense. And when you don't feel the intensity. So then you stop making your own ones. I wish it was just like black and white. See, Lauren, this is what I'm always saying. It's like, let's put it all on the table table let's get it all out there and then make the decision lauren sometimes goes in pretty hetero taylor also pulled that clip of her saying that she's an asshole over and over and it's yeah save that for me please because i'm gonna i'm gonna use that to my benefit for for a long time um i am a big fan of doulas i definitely think that if you can

have one you should look into it can you speak on why you think doulas are a vital part of giving birth? I think doulas are the bomb. I think if you Wikipedia doula, my picture doesn't even come up on page 35 of Google, but yeah, I'm not the typical. I know a good SEO guy. My sister too. If you can make me be the number one guy that pops up when someone searches doula, that is a top notch. My sister has a business that can help you out. Jordan, help Dr. Berlin out. Jordan, we need you. I think the doulas can be really helpful. Look, not everybody will like a doula.

Not everybody wants somebody in the room that is not. Sometimes more people in the room make people uncomfortable, and that makes a lot of sense. Generally speaking, I think there's a parallel between conceiving and giving birth. It's the same anatomy and physiology. The baby goes in and comes out the same anatomy and the physiology that drives labor is oxytocin, which is also the love and bonding and orgasm hormone. So if you're just an animal looking for the environment

that animals would look to give birth in, it would be someplace quiet, dark, intimate, just like conception. I think it would be hard for most people to conceive wearing an oversized unisex hospital muumuu in a hospital with bright lights on, the smell of germicide and random people coming and going. And for that reason, I think in terms of the nervous system, it's hard for a lot of people to give birth in that environment too. So whereas some people don't want anybody else around them, and that's cool also, a lot of people want the safety blanket

of the hospital, the medical safety blanket, but need a little buffer around them and that's cool also a lot of people want the safety blanket of the hospital the medical safety blanket but need a little buffer around them to help the nervous system feel relaxed that's that's me i the hospital grosses me out so much but i want to be in the hospital but i need like i need like vibes and energy doulas or vibes.com that's our thing i mean we really we really try to help you We sit with you during pregnancy and really learn what makes you tick to the extent that we can, what makes you feel safe, what makes you feel relaxed, comfortable, confident. Is it certain types of sounds or music, smells or scents? Is it certain types of touch like massage and body work? And what also makes you not feel safe and relaxed? What kind of things that you would like? At the end of pregnancy, the idea is hopefully you have a healthy woman with a healthy baby inside. And that's the starting point. And the end point is you have a healthy woman with a healthy baby on the outside. There's a million ways to get from point A to point B. And they're all good ways, different ways, better for other people. Sometimes you have a route that you would prefer. Maybe you like the more scenic route. Maybe you like the shortest route. route. Maybe you like the shortest

route. If it's me, I always insist on passing by a Krispy Kreme donut on the route. Everybody has different preferences, right? And it's okay to aim for a route. If you know the different pros and cons, you'll say, I would like to do that if all things are equal. And you start down that path and you try to steer down that path. And it's okay if you come to a roadblock if there's a detour you can just take another route it's still headed in that same direction you wanted to go as long as you're comfortable with that detour you take that detour once the day comes it's kind of like trying to steer a hot air balloon it's not the mechanics of today's modern car where you can precisionly steer wherever you want to you made up a word you're not gonna like that well i don't know if I have much.

I don't have much of a say in this. You know, I'm just there to. You're not going to like that. You can't steer the car where you want to go. Precisionally. I made up a word precisionally, I think, just now. That's okay. Before you go, I want to talk about sex and then depression and anxiety.

So first, let's talk about that. Why do those all go together? What's going on here? Well, they don't go together. It's two separate questions. The first question is sex when you're pregnant. It's weird. they don't go together it's two separate questions the first question is sex when you're pregnant it's weird i don't know why no one talks about it like it's it's a weird thing you you go from you know for me you know you have this body for for a long time and you're you know with your husband or your boyfriend and the body completely

changes for me i feel like i've exploded and it's not the hottest thing in the world but i know it's important to have sex because it's good for the baby right i mean it could be if you're comfortable and you're happy with it it could be good for the baby it could be great for the relationship it could be bad for the relationship i think during pregnancy the changes that take place in your body some women report feeling more into sex than ever before. They're more sensitive in a positive way. They feel things that they didn't feel before. They like, some people like the changes of the body, the fullness of the body that maybe they didn't have before. I think for both partners, for the pregnant partner and the non-pregnant partner, that could be the case.

Other people don't like how they feel when they're pregnant and don't feel sexy and don't feel in the mood to have sex. And sometimes the partner doesn't love it or they're nervous male partners are sometimes talking about being afraid to hurt the baby you know that was me in the beginning yeah michael thought his dick was gonna touch the baby no it's not that i just you know you never you don't go you don't grow up thinking about doing that you know okay well then it becomes a reality and it's in the beginning it's not that big of a deal because the woman doesn't have the bump and small you don't think everything's changing so it's just a lot of mechanics i went through the waves i was like first i was like okay whatever didn't matter

then i was a little scared and then i'm now i'm back to whatever okay dr goldberg likes to say men wish they could hurt the baby you know like to think that they can hurt the baby but it's really not that it's uh it's it's safe you know it's just the mechanics, I think, are what you're talking about, especially the further you get down into the pregnancy. Yeah. Now, towards the end, the midwives that I work with often say, you know, to prepare the body a little bit for the birth. It's good to have regular and, of course, to keep things stretched and loose. Are you talking like every day? Like, what do you mean regular?

Not necessarily every day. What's regular? I mean, depends what's regular for you. We got to get going and I got to prepare you. I got to prepare the birth canal. Oh my God. You have to do so much work during this pregnancy. It's wild.

I've never seen someone do so much work. You got a freckle in your mouth. You got to have sex. This has been a trying time for me, everybody. I feel bad. You might need a doula also. You guys should get separate doulas. Oh, my God.

He's the type that's going to complain that he's hungry while I'm pushing. No, I really like this doula because she was saying, when we were talking in the beginning, she said, listen, if he's tired or hungry, then he wants something to get a nap and food. I'm like, wow, this is thoughtful. Because before, Lauren's like, you're not going to be going anywhere. Feed him. Okay, so last question.

Yeah. I really want to speak on this because we had gabby bernstein on and she spoke on this and it's it resonated with a lot of people depression and anxiety postpartum not just postpartum though during pregnancy because i'm experiencing not i'm not having any kind of depression but i'm having anxiety and feeling anxious and then afterwards what does it look like? Like Michael said, postpartum. Well, for just a second, what are you feeling anxious about?

Is it generalized anxiety or are there things in particular that are on your mind? I'm anxious. I think the weight gain makes me anxious. I think how much, how I'm always hungry makes me anxious. So far, you sound like me in second grade. Yeah. The weight gain and the hunger. So far you sound like me in second grade. Yeah. The weight gain and the hunger. That's when it all kicked in for me.

I think that I have a little bit of anxiety because my mom passed away. So there's maybe like that's bringing up things for me that weren't there. How old were you when you were, was that recent? 18. So I think that when you be, when you're becoming a mom that brings up all this stuff that you thought you had packed away. And then I'm also anxious. I'm not really anxious for birth. I actually have no expectation.

I'm anxious for afterwards. Okay. Well, that's pretty smart. I mean, birth is a finite period of time, somewhere around 24 hours, let's say, give or take a little bit. And again, you have the starting point and the end point, and generally in today's day and age, if you have access to medical care or health care or some kind of care, you get from point A to point B safely. Just like driving a car, you get in there, you expect to get from point A to point B safely,

and sometimes things come up, but you're not driving the whole time with the airbag deployed. What if I get into an accident? In terms of what you were talking about, it's very powerful. I think that when I'm blessed to oftentimes be with somebody on the journey through pregnancy and oftentimes during delivery. And it's at the end of it, I usually am in like teary eyed when that baby comes out, no matter how they did it. I'm teary eyed. It's a triumphant moment for her. And you really witness a birth, but really two births you the birth of the baby and

the birth of the mother it's a big moment it's a this big metamorphosis like that automatically puts you in the next chapter whatever happened up until now was a chapter and now you're in the next chapter you go from being someone's daughter to being someone's mother it's a very that gives me anxiety i don't know why well it's a big it, I mean, what, what bigger job is there in the world? That's giving me anxiety. Yeah. When you say that, what about afterwards when there's postpartum, does it usually go into postpartum? I mean, I wouldn't say usually, I think that there's a humongous hormone flux that takes place after the baby comes. It's almost as if seems like it takes nine months for these pregnancy hormones to slowly build up and then all of a sudden go off the cliff as soon as that baby comes out.

And there's a big learning curve. There's a lot of stuff. How are we going to feed the baby? What does it mean when the baby cries? How are we going to change the baby? It's just a lot of responsibility all at once. And it makes a lot of sense that that would come with some anxiousness, just normal, healthy anxiousness. Afterwards, it's a rocky period. I think postpartum, if I could describe it best, I there it's a rocky period i think postpartum if i could

describe it best i think it's a rocky period so sometimes you're driving on a smooth terrain and and your little sedan does great on that smooth terrain and then all of a sudden you end up off-roading if you're still driving that sedan it's going to be a very bumpy ride your wheels are going to get pulled off but if you get yourself into an off-road vehicle, it could actually be a great time. You can enjoy it. You could want to do it again. It's very hard for you to put your shoes right now, to put yourself in the shoes of someone who's giving birth or someone who's a mother, because you've never been there. There's so much unknown. Of course, it creates anxiety for everybody, really pretty much everybody. And I love that you're anxious about what happens

after the baby's here because a lot of people don't even think about that oh i'm thinking about okay good i love it i love to sleep oh yeah so i can see why you're extra anxious yeah that's not happening you have to learn how you know you have to find yourself but but poor michael yeah poor michael poor, poor Michael. So far I've heard. Everybody's feeling bad for me on this podcast. They're all thinking about me. In this hour, I've heard some things that make me feel like poor Michael. Yeah. I go home. I get my tears out. Are there any tools that someone can do if they're feeling postpartum? I think that postpartum care starts at least during pregnancy,

if not before pregnancy. I think that if you're in a relationship, it's important to work on the relationship. My sense is that once a baby comes, all that love and affection that goes between partners, it decreases necessarily. All your energy goes down to begin with, and what you have left tends to go down to the baby. And that can leave each partner feeling a little bit lonely and sometimes put distance in the relationship. So my wife, who is a pre and postnatal psychologist, this is her whole life is preparing individuals and couples during pregnancy for how to have a smoother, more enjoyable transition, healthier transition, physical and emotional transition after the baby comes. and she compares having a baby in terms of the relationship she compares it to like trying to run up a down escalator relationships in general between two people it's the kind of thing where if you put

in a little bit of energy you can kind of go someplace if you put on a lot of energy you can go further and if you put on a ton of energy you get to the top you can really master that relationship but if you just stay there if you putting energy, you don't stay where you are, you go down. And having a baby tends to really speed up that escalator. So during pregnancy, it's really nice, I think, to boost yourself, your relationship as high as you can. And so that if you slip a little bit, once the baby comes, then you're not in a bad place. We used to have a village around us. You used to give birth, you used to live in your village on your family property. You used to be surrounded by relatives who were having babies, feeding babies.

It wasn't foreign to you at all. Today's day and age, most people get their information about childbirth from TV movies and newspaper headlines, and that's scary shit to be honest. And Instagram. And Instagram. So, I mean, imagine you've never been on an airplane before, and you're going gonna fly in an airplane for the first time and all you know about airplanes is what you learned in tv movies

and oh yeah i freaked out yeah you would i couldn't i wouldn't do it even with an epidural you'd have to knock me out like b.a barack is from the 18th next thing you know you think there's all these snakes on the plane exactly remember that movie snakes on the plane you would think that airplanes almost always have engine failure and fall out of the sky or are hijacked by terrorists or have snakes on them. The idea that an airplane can just take off, have a smooth flight and land would be foreign to you. But that's actually what happens. I mean, generally speaking, if we leave birth alone, that's what usually happens. Have you read that book, Factfulness?

No. It's a good book. It's all about how we think the world is actually worse than it than it is but it's actually getting better than it's ever been every year and they use and they break it down by actually using like statistics basically like stillbirth childbirths they make they break it down by plane crashes like all sorts education all sorts of things and actually use statistics and i believe and i could be wrong i could be completely misquoted but i think you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than getting on a plane that crashes statistically thank you for that I could be wrong I could be wrong but the the stat was astounding like if

you actually go in there and read what the statistics of potentially getting in a plane crash it's so extremely low it's just all you hear about whenever so whenever one happens in the news of course every channel is going to report on it and blow it up. But that's why we all think it's much more prominent. This is too much semen, vagina, sex, butthole, and birth for my husband. So he changed his subject. Anyways, you guys want to talk about how the water in the world is. He doesn't know what to do.

There's actually much better drinking water that we have. I'm just kidding. But anyways, that's a great book. Check it out. Well, that's true. There's never going to be a headline that says all planes landed safely today. That just doesn't sell. Sure. I'm just kidding. But anyways, that's a great book. Check it out. Well, that's true. There's never going to be a headline that says all planes landed safely today. That just doesn't sell. Sure.

I'm pretty sure I might have got that wrong, but it's astoundingly low, the chances of getting in a plane crash. Yeah. And because of my jewelry anxiety, I always assume I'm going to get hit by lightning during a plane crash. That's my answer.

This is for my selfish self. What is a book, a podcast, or a resource that you would recommend to the man oh i want to know what the man needs to read because i think that my husband needs to understand a little bit more of what i'm going i tried a few of the books and honestly you didn't try i swear to god i did and you can try there's always room to try harder okay dr brillin yeah he wants to go back to statistics yeah He loves statistics. And Lauren's like thinking about bloody nipples.

It's like somewhere in between. I think that The Birth Partner is a great book. The Birth, okay, I haven't read that one. It's a really good book in terms of supporting for birth, but bigger than that also. By way of self-promotion, I really do feel like my wife's program called The Afterbirth Plan, which is now available to anybody online is a very powerful tool for both partners as individuals and as a couple really strengthening yourself and finding this relationship and making as strong as you can be because that's the greatest gift you can give

your baby and you're going to do fine your your body took a sperm and egg and what a beer or some bubbly and made a human child out of it it's going to figure out 15 margaritas it was a it was margaritas it was tequila doggy style and queen okay that's what i expected it was tequila that's how i pictured it there might be a beer too though i might have had a beer and a tequila i don't know if the baby's gonna come out maybe not that order anyway so like to to deliver baby usually is is similarly as natural and also the instincts that you have the hard wiring i would love for you to watch this video on youtube called risky business r, R-I-S-K-I Business. It's an elephant giving birth on an elephant reserve in Bali. And she kind of goes off by herself. There's nobody around her,

no doctor, no midwife, no doula, no monitors and beepy things. She didn't take a class. She didn't read a book. She had no podcast, no documentaries. And she just figures out how to labor this baby down. And she does this dance, this very graceful elephant dance. She does not make a lot of noise. There's not a lot of noise involved. There's not a lot. You look at her face. You can tell when an animal's scared.

There's no fear on her face. She just does this thing. And then she squats down and gives birth to this must-be-275-pound baby. I mean, don't worry. Yours will be lighter than that i see the look in your face right now oh my god how big's her vagina to do that i don't know i didn't it's an elephant lauren yeah she had an elephant vagina so and then this is a clip as well and then this is the most incredible thing okay i think when you watch it you're gonna feel less

anxious she gracefully steps over her baby when she comes out to turn around and take a look, she uses her little trunk to like do an assessment, like a prenatal assessment. This is not going to lower your anxiety. The baby's not breathing at all. Okay. And she gets anxious. Now you see her face for the first time, feel anxious, look anxious. And then she does all these things. She kind of like kicks the baby a little bit. What, you know, kind of what you see on TV where they slept the things she kind of like kicks the baby a little bit what you know kind of what you see on tv where they slap the baby's bum she kicks the baby a little bit she's doing all these different things and eventually she wraps her trunk around the baby's little tiny sweet little baby trunk lifts the head up and gives a yank she just pulls on it almost

like a chiropractic adjustment that's what it looks like to me and the baby starts breathing wow on a regular normal breath and then she like coaches the baby starts breathing. Wow. On a regular normal breath. And then she like coaches the baby to stand up and walk around. How does she know how to do that without any of the resources that we have? It's hardwired inside you guys. You know how to do it. It's really sometimes about shutting out the outside world, closing your eyes and listening to that little voice from within. And it'll guide you. It'll tell you exactly how to do it, how to grow a baby, how to deliver a baby, how to to feed a baby how to raise a baby it's in there you got it that settled my anxiety i'm sure taylor our producer has never heard and learned so much

about birth and i feel like if i'm right that he wants to experiment with having sex with a pregnant woman after this podcast you think so yeah i do and his mic's off so he can't defend himself which is perfect an elephant whatever whatever he'll go for anything yeah where can everyone find you pimp yourself out pimp myself out are we have two websites drberlin.com d-o-c-t-o-r berlin.com is where we do all of our wellness services in los angeles and informedpregnancy.com but all of our resources are neatly gathered on Instagram at Dr. Berlin, D-O-C-T-O-R-B-E-R-L-I-N. And he has an amazing podcast.

What's the podcast? It's the Informed Pregnancy Podcast. You gotta check that out too. And that's all our podcasts and our documentaries, three years, and all of our classes and workshops, everything's on Instagram in that link tree. You interview a lot of celebrities and influencers, and I am actually going on your podcast right now. I know. The biggest influencer.

I know. I'll talk. So hopefully we can hop over there and you guys can listen to part two where it's just you and I. No, Michael. Okay. Thank you for coming on.

Dr. Berlin, thank you so much for coming in. Learned a lot. I'm going to go watch Risky Business, not the one with Tom Cruise. Yeah, I'll come home. He'll be watching Tom Cruise's Risky Business. Wrong one. I'm going to say, Dr. Berlin told me to watch Tom Cruise.

I hope you're Amazon-ing the birthing partner. Thanks for coming on. The birth partner. My pleasure. Hope you guys love this episode and you took as many notes as Taylor took. With that, we're going to do a giveaway like always to win a brand new TSC pop socket. We just got these heart pop sockets in that are major. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part

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